X-Men: First Class Gets a Beast, Banshee, and Havok

Deadline reports that Nicholas Hoult (pictured above) has been cast as Beast in X-Men: First Class, contrary to previous reports saying Ben Walker was cast.  You may recognize Hoult as that little kid who followed Hugh Grant home in About A Boy.  Now he’s pretty hittable, a sexy beast you might even say . . .  Well, this is just uncomfortable for everyone.  Moving on.

LatinoReview reports that Caleb Landry Jones (pictured below) is the top contender to play Banshee, the mutant with the best rock scream.  You may have seen Jones in No Country For Old Men; he was one of the kids on a bike at the end.  Yeah, I don’t know either.  As for Havok, the little brother of Cyclops, Slashfilm reports that Lucas Till (pictured at right) is in talks for the role.  He was in Walk the Line and also a bunch of movies I didn’t see.

Rounding out the cast are James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Alice Eve as Emma Frost, Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) as Magneto.  Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) may be cast as Cyclops (or he may just continue to impregnate his rich older wife). Slashfilm gives a good round-up of the other casting rumors that have yet to be confirmed.

From the casting news so far (characters utilized, age of the actors cast, etc.), this seems (I could be wrong here) to be based not so much on the comic book universe as it is on the universe from the two Brian Singer movies (Singer is still involved in First Class although Matthew Vaughn stepped in to direct).  If this is what it takes to make us forget what Brett Ratner did to the franchise with Last Stand, we’re cool with that.